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House Fire

"All of my family photos from before the fire are gone."

Listen to this Commentary!

By Sarah Taylor

I’m Sarah Taylor a freshman at Grady High School with a commentary from Youth Radio.

I've never been superstitious, but Friday the 13th in August of 1999 was one of the worst days of my life. My house burned.

Dad, my brother Naaman, and I had gone grocery shopping. When we got back, there were firemen all around the house. It could have been a lot worse. No one was home except my pet gerbil.

The firemen think the cause was electrical. The only room that burned was the library, but everything else in the house was covered with soot, stepped on and broken, or soaked until it was unusable. Walking into my room I remember all my metal shelves laying on the floor. My gerbil, Haven, was lying there in his cage. He was obviously dead and looked kind of bluish. He was completely stiff and very wet. I haven't owned another pet since.

The firemen use special chemicals in the water that make it "wetter" then your average water. These chemicals are very corrosive; everything metal in our house immediately rusted. The things that didn’t burn were unusable.

I know I sound critical of the firemen and I admit I was upset with them at first, but they did their job. Everyone is okay. Our house is still standing, thanks to them.

But now I know how much fire hurts. All of my family photos from before the fire are gone. Sometimes you might take pictures and books of memories for granted. But you shouldn't. Memories are so very fragile, and might crumble in your hand.

I’m Sarah Taylor.

HOST BACK ANNOUNCE: Youth Radio Atlanta is produced in cooperation with Grady High School, WABE, and Youth Radio in Berkeley, California and is funded in part by The Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation.